Actress Huong Hoang is suing Amazon.com subsidiary IMDb for revealing her age. She believes that IMDb violates her privacy and opened her up to age discrimination by revealing that she is 40 years old. She also changed her name to Junie Hoang because her Asian name is hard to pronounce. Hoang has been in small-budget movies such as Gingerbread Man 3: Saturday Night Cleaver and The Custom Mary. She also played the voice of a character in the Street Fighter II animated TV series. Amazon.com asked a federal judge to force the plaintiff to reveal herself saying that the judicial process’ strong preference for transparency and its belief that proceeding openly would not subject Hoang to a measurable discrimination in the movie industry. The judge ruled that Hoang had to come forward with a new complaint under her own name or the case would be dismissed. The case has been refiled. [THR]

Rovi is suing Amazon.com subsidiary IMDb.com over infringement on TV guide patents. Rovi attained the patents when they acquired Gemstar. The five patents cover interactive program guides, purchasing products on-demand, and scheduling recordings from a computer. Rovi claims to have initiated patent-licensing discussions with Amazon.com in 2009, but they did not reach an agreement. [paidContent]

The Telegraph UK did a compelling interview with IMDb founder Colin Needham about how he manages work and his personal life. It turns out that Colin and his wife Karen maintain a tradition to watch a movie every Tuesday.

The Internet Movie Database (IMDb) has released an Android application. The Android app has an optimized user interface for finding information about actors, movies, TV shows, bios, trailers, reviews, etc.

The Internet Movie Database (IMDb) should smack themselves in the head harder than the people who should have just had a V8.  The Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) subsidiary has finally decided to take connect videos to their database of actors, actress, movies, and TV shows. 

“IMDb’s mission has always been to be the world’s most comprehensive, user-friendly destination for all movie, TV and celebrity-related information, products and services,” stated Col Needham, founder and managing director of IMDb.com. “We’re excited to offer our users a simple online experience to watch
full-length movies and TV episodes for free. Our goal is to show our users every movie and TV show on the Internet for free on IMDb.com.”

IMDb will have shows like 24, Big Brother, CSI, Family Guy, Heroes, House M.D., The Office, 30 Rock, Chuck, Life, Lipstick Jungle, and The Simpsons.  These videos are provided by CBS, Hulu, and Sony.  Over 500 indie filmmakers are also providing content.  The videos are all available on the homepage.

IMDb launched in October 1990.  Amazon.com bought IMDb in 1998.  IMDb has 57 million visitors per month and 17 million registered.

IMDb, subsidiary of Amazon.com has filed a trademark application for the term SoundUnwound.  The trademark would cover:
“Providing information regarding, and in the nature of, social networking services; online social networking services designed for people with a common desire to meet other people with similar interests; Social networking services for music enthusiasts.”

This means that IMDb may be interested in putting together a social network for those who are interested in music.  IMDb has a little bit of social networking built around their website in terms of discussions, reviews, comments, and the ability to put together a profile.  Building a network that revolves around music would put them in a market that complements the one that they are already in: movies.

IMDb could be building a music database that could be potentially drawing from the same data Amazon.com has.  Amazon.com has a full listing of all the tracks on almost every music album selling on their website.  Building a social network around that has potential to become successful.  Other music social networks out there include Amie Street and iLike.

[Found via Mashable]